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Over 350 EU groups urge Israeli boycott

More than 300 groups in Europe have urged the EU to hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and join a global campaign for boycott of Israeli products.

More than 300 groups in Europe have urged the EU to hold Israel accountable for its human rights violations and join a global campaign for boycott of Israeli products.

The 352 signatories to a letter include human rights and aid organizations, church groups, trade unions and political parties from across the continent, including France, Germany, Norway and Belgium.

In their letter, they have urged the EU to defend the right of individuals and institutions to take part in the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

The movement campaigns for a boycott of all Israeli goods and questions Israel’s legitimacy.

The BDS movement is currently asking people to add their names to an appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to take necessary measures to protect those who campaign for Palestinian rights.

The letter comes in response to recent efforts by European governments, at the request of the Israeli authorities, to introduce legislation and take other repressive measures to confront the BDS movement.

In February, Britain introduced new rules, banning local authorities and public-sector organizations from boycotting Israel and pledging severe penalties for violators.

The signatories of the letter denounced such moves and urged European governments to follow many civil society organizations and representative bodies in the continent in standing up for human rights.

“Rather than helping Israel to repress the BDS movement, it is time for the EU to meet its obligations under international law,” said Riya Hassan, Europe Campaigns Officer for the Palestinian BDS National Committee.

He urged European governments to “hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law” and “take part in the non-violent BDS movement.”

The letter by the European groups has also called on the EU commission to “introduce the human rights guidelines guaranteeing freedom of speech.”

Aneta Jerska, the coordinator of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), hailed the public support for the BDS movement against Israel.

“This is a powerful sign that European public opinion is increasingly viewing BDS as an act of free speech. We will continue to fight to bring an end to Israel’s unjust system of oppression over the Palestinian people.”

In France, however, banking behemoth Credit Mutuel shut down the account of La Campagne BDS France at the request the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF).

BDS France removed a link on its donor webpage for Credit Mutuel and added a link to PayPal as a method of contribution.

Having failed to stop the growth of the movement, Tel Aviv has launched an unprecedented attack against the BDS.

Israeli authorities recently barred one of the founders of the BDS, from travelling abroad. Omar Barghouti does not hold a passport and instead requires special permission to travel in and out of Israel.

The restriction came weeks after the Israeli interior minister threatened to revoke the residency rights of the Qatari-born Palestinian.

Anti-BDS bill voted down in Ontario

The file photo shows ‘Boycott Israel’ stickers in a store in Canada.

In Canada, however, the legislature in Ontario voted down on Thursday an attempt to prevent the provincial government from doing business with companies that support the BDS.

A majority of the lawmakers said they did not support the bill because it infringed on the right to free speech.

Ontario’s Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is in the midst of a trip to the Middle East, has said she supports free speech.

“I support all rights to freely express their views, freely expressed without fear of discrimination or persecution, whether in Ontario or in the Middle East,” she said.

The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations that were pushing for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.”

Thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS ever since to help promote the Palestinian cause.

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Zahedan, March 19, IRNA – About 1,370 kilograms of narcotics were found and confiscated in the southern areas of Sistan and Baluchetan, said an anti-narcotic officer in the Iranian southeastern province.

Algiers, March 19, IRNA – British Ambassador to Algeria Barry Lowen said on Monday that Iran's nuclear deal was a very significant diplomatic achievement and all should spare no efforts to help maintain implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Vienna, March 19, IRNA - German foreign minister on Monday underlined saving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, the UK, Russia, China and France plus Germany) in 2015.

Gorgan, March 19, IRNA – In the current Iranian calendar year (starting from March 21, 2017), 71 tons of narcotics have been seized from drug dealers at the country's eastern borders, said Iranian Border Guard Commander Brigadier General Qasem Rezaei.

Mashad, March 19, IRNA – The 5,000 years old skeletons and items found alongside them in the Burnt City, eastern Iran, are displayed in Mashad, director general of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Razavi Khorasan Province, northeastern Iran.

Tehran, March 19, IRNA – The man who ploughed his bus into a group of the Iranian police officers killing three of the security forces during unrest in a Tehran northern street about a month ago, has been sentenced to death.

Tehran, March 19, IRNA – The European Union must discuss Iran’s role in Syria and Yemen, as well as its ballistic missiles program, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Monday, whereas EU foreign policy chief has refuted reports of a new sanction against Tehran.

Tehran, March 19, IRNA – Iran's President Hassan Rouhani congratulated his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a message released on Monday on his 'landslide victory' in Russia’s presidential election.

Islamabad, March 19, IRNA - A high level Iranian delegation is scheduled to visit Islamabad in April to participate in the fourth round of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Iran and Pakistan, local media reported.

Tehran, March 19, IRNA – President Hassan Rouhani has sent a message to the President of Armenia to offer congratulations on his election and expressed hope that Tehran-Yerevan ties would further develop with regard to cultural and historical ties between the two nations.

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Oro Governor Gary Juffa speaking at a PNG campaign gathering ... explaining the qualities to look for in national leadership. Image: JuffaFB By Gary Juffa, Oro Governor and an opposition MP writing for Asia Pacific Report. I SUSPECT that these Papua New Guinea elections have been so deliberately set to fail, leaving much room for fraud and confusion, and dis […]

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Auckland mayor Phil Goff admiring a photograph by John Miller taken of the politician when he was a student activist campaigning for a nuclear-free New Zealand. Goff spoke at the "Celebrating 30 Years of Nuclear-Free Aotearoa/New Zealand" at the Depot Artspace in Devonport today. Image" David Robie Reflections from David Robie CONGRATULATIONS […]

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Graphic: Concept art for Planet of the Apes Courtesy of the Pacific Media Centre and Asia Pacific Report TIME FOR INDEPENDENCE FROM A CRUMBLING US EMPIRE - Murray Horton The advent of President Donald Trump in the US provides an unprecedented opportunity to take a good, hard look at Aotearoa's place in the world. And to ask the question - why are we s […]

Bonnie Etherington reading from her new book The Earth Cries Out at the Women's Bookshop in Ponsonby, Auckland, this week. Photo: Del Abcede THE Auckland launch of Bonnie Etherington’s thrilling debut novel, The Earth Cries Out, on grief, repression and life in another world -- the Highlands of West Papua -- this week was intriguing. Along with the usua […]

Racial Preferences: Peter Dutton and White South African Farmers It has been the great misfit Australian policy since the 1990s: a refugee and immigration policy that shows itself to be scrupulously fair, calculable and clean. Nothing shall be ...

The American Samoa Community College (ASCC) Marketing Committee, in collaboration with the Student Government Association (SGA) and student clubs on campus, last week concluded an a food drive to provide assistance to students at the College whose ...

I would like to announce the publication of a new book entitled “The Devil's Dynamo”. It is a collection of articles and book chapters that I have written about the way in which military-industrial complexes throughout the world drive and perpetuate ...

Trump’s Intelligence Circus: Tillerson, Pompeo and Haspel It takes much to make a figure like Rex Tillerson seem not merely sane but competent. The Trump administration, with its almost paranormal sense of revisionism and fantasy, has managed to make ...

Japan is witnessing a new tea boom with the growing popularity of roasted green tea–hojicha. As a result, major food and beverage firms are rushing to introduce a number of hojicha-flavored food and drink products to capitalize on the opportunity, says leading data and analytics ...

Commonwealth Summit: Unions Call for Action on Jobs, Democracy, Development and Climate Brussels, 16 March 2018 (ITUC OnLine): Trade unions from the Commonwealth countries are calling on leaders at the 52-member Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting ...

We have been receiving deeply alarming reports from Afrin in northwestern Syria about civilian deaths and injuries due to airstrikes and ground-based strikes, as well as reports that civilians are being prevented from leaving Afrin city by Kurdish ...

On March 13 2018, the Third Judicial Magistrate at the First Class Court in Mangalore acquitted Pramod Muthalik , and 25 other members of the Sri Rama Sene of the 2009 assault of several women in a Amnesia, a Mangalore pub. The Sri Ram Sene is a right-wing ...

GENEVA (15 March 2018) – UN experts* have expressed concern over the imminent execution in Saudi Arabia of a man convicted of spying for Iran, financing terrorism and spreading the Shia faith, and called on the Government to annul the death sentence.

The American Petroleum Industry (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) held meetings at the Trump Hotel in DC. At the same time, these associations are also lobbying the Trump administration for an expansion of offshore oil exploration

Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma,Wyoming, Minnesota and Louisiana have introduced or passed legislation to criminalize environmental dissent. There is evidence that bill mill organizations such as ALEC and the bipartisan group Council of State Governments (CSG) had their hand in shaping these bills says investigative journalist Steve Horne.

For requesting evidence of Russian culpability in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has been denounced by PM Theresa May and even members of his own party. We discuss the case with Stephen F. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University and Princeton

Senators introduced legislation that would undermine the Sanders-Lee resolution to stop US support for Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. "They're trying to provide cover for just a handful of senators so they can vote for this instead of the Sanders Lee bill," says CEPR's Mark Weisbrot

New measures added to the financial deregulation bill include the deregulation of commercial real estate, which threatens to re-create the conditions that led to the 2008 financial crisis, says Bill Black

Businesses have had plenty of time to take Trump's corporate tax cuts into account for their investment plans. However, as CEPR's Dean Baker reports, this has not happened. Instead, they spent their tax windfall on stock buybacks

In this interview with the senior editor and founder of The Real News Network, Paul Jay, acTVism examines the threats facing humanity today, Russiagate and what issues independent media outlets should be prioritizing

On Reality Asserts Itself, Prof. Leo Panitch says it's a dilemma that the gradualism of European social-democracy and attempts at a more radical transformation have so far both failed; Panitch says a first step towards democratizing the economy is to make finance a public utility - with host Paul Jay

As part of #Enough, the National School Walkout, hundreds of Baltimore high school students marched to demand gun control, increased accountability for the police force, and more funding for the school system

Chile's newly inaugurated president Sebastian Pinera attempts to move the country to the right, but faces important constraints from social movements that vow to resist his government, explains Prof. Rene Rojas

Arabic Literature (in English)

“The goal of this course was to help students recognize these voices as important sources of social and intellectual history, and hence the choice to use non-fictional texts, which lend themselves to historical interpretation more easily.”

Still, it’s unclear whether any international publishers would be willing to come in for a second annual fair. The Amman Book Fair is already set for September 26-October 6, and the critically important Frankfurt Book Fair is October 10-14. The International Book Fair in Algiers is generally held at the end of October, with the Sharjah, Kuwait, Doha, Jeddah, and Beirut Book Fairs tightly packed in November and December.

“It is fifty years since Kanafani wrote Returning to Haifa. Far from being a story of dispossession and degraded circumstances that feels historical, the novella and its staging came across to me as a truly depressing – and necessary – reminder of what is still at stake, so many years later.”

“It is not enough to love, for that is one of nature’s magical acts, like rainfall and thunder. It takes you out of yourself into the other’s orbit and then you have to fend for yourself. It is not enough to love, you have to know how to love. Do you know how?”